Binkies and Butter Cows

I have recovered from yesterday's blood drawing catastrophe! Today Mom and I had a very fun time going up to Salt Lake. I had an interview with a man in the LDS Historic Sites Division which is housed there at the Museum of Church History and Art. They have an internship opening--and the internship sounds awesome--but I don't know if the timing would be right on it. It really would be cool though, to get to work on writing the history manuals for the missionaries at the Church historic sites, as well as working on management plans and museum exhibit text for the various sites. We'll have to see what they say when they call back. The Museum of Church History and Art has always been #1 on my list of cool places to work (although Abraham Lincoln's house and Gettysburg are right up there too). I also met with the director of collections there at the museum. She has a sweet job! She's very nice, and I'm glad--even if I don't take the internship--to have met and chatted with those people today. I don't want to be an intern forever, so I wish that they would have a full-time job open up there!

After the job interviews, Mom and I went and had lunch at our favorite place--the Lion House Pantry. It was, as always, delicious. I had a tasty apricot/apple pie, and Mom had some delectable apple pie. It was a very fun and productive visit to SLC today.

This evening we had a great dinner over at Lindy and Nate's. Lindy is quite the chef! The highlights of the meal included the punch, the two types of tasty salmon, and the banana berry pie. Mmmmm!!

Yesterday Eliza, who loves her binkies, figured out how to have two in her mouth at once (and you'll notice she's carrying a spare). She thought she was quite tricky. She is so cute and fun, and I don't know what we'll do for fun around the Taylor house when the Agates head back to South Carolina on Saturday. Eliza is our little comedian.


Speaking of funny babies, look at this--the famous Illinois Butter Cow had a baby! The little butter baby will be on display during the Illinois State Fair in Springfield from Aug. 8-17.

Speaking of Springfield, I sent a letter to the editor of the Illinois State Journal-Register the other day about the ridiculous situation with the state historic sites. I was so happy to see that yesterday they printed my letter along with a bunch of others on the same topic! If you would like to see yesterday's letters to the editor, click here. Here is the printed text from my letter:

Rich history of our state is significant
I was appalled to hear of the recent Illinois Historic Preservation Agency budget cuts. The dramatic downsizing of the agency because of lack of funding will hamper the ability of the state historic sites to accommodate visitors — a problem that will surely hurt the state’s economy, which relies heavily on tourism. With the upcoming Abraham Lincoln bicentennial celebrations in 2009, Gov. Rod Blagojevich could not have chosen a worse time to debilitate the state historic sites. Unfortunately, cutting funding to historical agencies seems to be a national trend, but no other budget cuts have been as profound, detrimental and untimely as those in Illinois. By taking money from the state’s main historical agency to fill gaps in the state budget, the governor and other officials are sending a message to the public that the history of their state is not significant. But the rich history of Illinois is most definitely significant. Resources set aside to preserve that history should not be used as an emergency fund to cover the mismanagement of money elsewhere. As Abraham Lincoln once said, “We cannot escape history.” But if Blagojevich does not act quickly to restore funding to the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, history may well escape Illinois.

Tiffany Taylor
Orem, Utah

What do you think? It at least made me feel better to let my opinions be known. Blagojevich still has a missing 1.4 billion dollars in the state budget. There was a funny article in the Journal-Register about how Blagojevich thinks he's the "king" of Illinois. At least there has been a significant public outcry against the cuts to the state historic site funds.